Christie has not yet committed to debates with Buono in N.J. governor's race

View full sizeGov. Chris Christie has yet to say if he will debate his Democratic challenger, state Sen. Barbara Buono.File photos

TRENTON — The state’s election law watchdog plans on Tuesday to decide which groups of media outlets will get to produce gubernatorial debates.

But it’s still unclear whether Gov. Chris Christie will agree to public faceoffs.

Under Election Law Enforcement Commission guidelines, only candidates who take public matching funds are required to participate in debates. The rules say gubernatorial candidates must duke it out twice and lieutenant governor hopefuls must debate once.

State Sen. Barbara Buono, the Democrat taking on Christie, will take public dollars for the general election as she did for the primary.

“It’s in the interest of the electorate to have substantive and vigorous debate over the issues and we are more than happy to have as many debates as Governor Christie would like to have,” campaign spokesman David Turner said. Buono has yet to reach out to Christie on the issue.

The Republican governor, however, has until Sept. 2, to commit to taking public matching funds. And so far he’s not talking.

“We have not yet made a determination whether to take public financing in this campaign,” campaign spokesman Kevin Roberts said.

Will Christie debate Buono even if the law doesn’t force him to? Roberts said that is still up in the air, too.

Four years ago, public matching funds helped Christie unseat the privately funded Democrat Jon Corzine in 2009. But the the men still participated in two debates. Four years earlier, Corzine and Republican Doug Forrester, both tapped their personal fortunes to pay for their campaigns, and debated each other at least twice.

The following groups applied to ELEC to produce debates ahead of the November election: